There’s an old 17th Century English Proverb that goes like this:

“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘺-𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥-𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.” 

It isn’t what you 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 that will hurt you.

It’s what you do 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦.

That’s what gets you into trouble.

It’s bad habits that are safe and comfortable.

It’s a death grip you have on the small, so you can’t grab big.

It’s the right tactics within the wrong strategy.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘨𝘰 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 of the pool, 𝘐’𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯.

Just swim to me, buddy. I got you.

Here are 10 Amazon Mistakes - often caused by fear - that hold sellers back:

1. They protect their email lists from Amazon.

• Pro Tip: Customers know what and where Amazon is.  You’re not keeping it a secret.

• Guarding your list does not keep Shoppers from going to Amazon.  It just prevents you from getting the credit as far as the algorithm is concerned.  

• Linking direct traffic onto Amazon works the algorithm in a way that Amazon ads can’t.  

• It’s not about the sales.  It’s about the algorithm on a massive selling channel. 

2. They don’t work (and re-work) unit economics to the penny.

• Knowing margin per each ASIN is critical.

• Why?  Because healthy margin powers growth.

• And no margin, bleeds you to death. 

3. Assuming review issues are always the customer.

• Yes, negative reviews are often the fault of angry or unreasonable customers.

• But when there’s a pattern, sometimes the customer is right.

• Reviews should be analyzed on a regular basis.  

4. Not going all-in on main image optimization.

• Revenue = Click-through Conversion Price. Period.

• That’s not theory, it’s actual math.  

• Now stay with me here.  If Click-through Conversion Price = Revenue. 

  Remember that the Click-through part of that equation is almost entirely your main image.  

• Now if you can double click-through, double revenue.

• Focus on the main image!

5. Using the same UPC as retail.

• Everything in retail gets listed digitally.

• Amazon will price match and remove your buy box.

• It is worth using different UPCs on Amazon so this doesn’t happen once your listings are driving significant revenue. 

6. Trying to maintain price parity with retail.

• This is a self imposed and unnecessary rule.

• Customers buy online for variety and convenience.

• Price on Amazon where you need to in order to maintain healthy margins.

7. Not optimizing for repeat customer rate.

• Repeat customer can replace ad expense.

• The whole idea of a repeat customer, or a subscriber, is to avoid paying for every sale.

• Subscribe N Save at the most is a cost of 10% of the sale.  Compare that to a 25% ACOS.  

• Yeah.  Let’s replace ad expense.

8. No keyword rank tracking, or no ranking strategy.

• Lots of agencies track, but lack clear improvement strategy.

• Yes, you do need to know, track, and analyze keyword rank.

• But you also have to have a very clear path for 

1. knowing which keywords you should improve, and 

2. how to do it in a systematic way. 

9. Failing to test and incorporate EVERY ad type and placement.

• I’ve done hundreds of audits.

• I’m not sure I’ve done one that wasn’t missing placements.

• Every single seller should have campaigns for every single targeting method and placement.

• That doesn’t mean you need to drive funds through them, but every single one should be tested.  

• Then, you’ll know which ones are the best performing, and you can double down on those. 

10. Failing to run regular (monthly) sales and promos.

• Again, this is about the algorithm of a MASSIVE channel.

• You need a systematic way of driving traffic to a meaningful promotion or event every single month.  

• I can’t say enough.  It isn’t about the sales you drive.  It is about getting the algorithm to increase your organic ranking. 

Now, I’ll leave you with one more quote.  

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳; 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵.”

—  Edwin Louis Cole

If you want help getting out of that river, send us an email at growth@elitecommercegroup.com.  

We can help.

What do you think?

Amazon thinks they’ll out-sell Walmart this year.

Do you think it can finally happen?  Or is this just a marketing tactic by Amazon?

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We drive velocity in Sprouts, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Sam's, COSTCO, and lots of other retailers.

We grow brands on Amazon.